Kline v. Capots

47 Pa. D. & C.5th 97
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Lawrence County
DecidedJanuary 27, 2015
DocketNo. 10987 of 2005 CA
StatusPublished

This text of 47 Pa. D. & C.5th 97 (Kline v. Capots) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Lawrence County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kline v. Capots, 47 Pa. D. & C.5th 97 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2015).

Opinion

MOTTO, P.J.,

Before the court for disposition are the preliminary objections to plaintiffs’ and additional plaintiff’s second amended complaint filed on behalf of the defendants David J. and Bette J. Capots and additional defendant Urie Byler. Although a number of issues are raised in the preliminary objections, the court finds the two dispositive issues are as follows:

1. Did the plaintiffs Kline lose the capacity to claim title to the disputed real estate on a claim of adverse possession when the plaintiffs executed and delivered a deed to the additional plaintiff Johnston, during the pendency of this action, that described only the real estate to which the Klines held record title.
2. Does the amended complaint establish as a matter of law that plaintiff Johnston cannot establish title to the disputed real estate on a claim of adverse possession [99]*99because Johnston is not in privity with the Klines and cannot tack onto the Klines period of possession.

In addition to defendants’ preliminary objections to the second amended complaint, defendants also presented a motion for partial summary as to Count I, Count II, Count III and Count IV of the plaintiffs’ original complaint. Specifically, defendants contend that because plaintiffs and additional plaintiff are unable to produce expert testimony to establish the boundary line as alleged in the complaint and cannot dispute the survey of defendants’ expert engineer, they are therefore unable to prove that they hold title to the disputed property and defendants are entitled to partial summary judgment under Pa.R.C.P. 1035.2, as to such counts.

This action arises from a property boundary dispute regarding a piece of undeveloped woodland in Taylor Township, Lawrence County. On July 3,2004, defendants David and Bette Capots hired the Michael Baker Corporation to complete a survey of their property along Route 168 in Taylor Township having the permanent parcel ID #33-079900 and #33-080000. Defendants’ property is located directly to the North of plaintiffs Harold and Ethel Kline’s 57.14 acres of property along Route 168 in Taylor Township. Plaintiff’s property is identified by permanent parcel ID #33-071100. At defendants request, David LaPearle, a licensed professional surveyor, conducted a metes and bounds survey of the defendants’ property which relied upon a multitude of historical maps and deeds and determined that the defendants’ are the owners of the disputed property which is described as follows:

From a point on the intersection of the center line of Hawthorne Road, (a 33 foot right-of-way) with the West line of a 300 foot First Energy right-of-way, thence on [100]*100a course of North 01° 29’29” West along said right-of-way a distance of 103.18 feet to a point, the place of beginning; thence along plaintiffs’ property on a course of North 89° 00’45” West a distance of 1,408.98 feet to a point; thence along plaintiffs’ property on a course of North 16°13’31” West a distance of 200.00 feet to a point; thence along plaintiffs’ property on a course of North 89° 00’45” West a distance of 158.91 feet to a point on the East right-of-way of State Route 168; thence along the East right-of-way lone of State Route 168 on a court of North 10° 13’57” West a distance of 744.33 feet to a point; thence along the South line of defendants’ property on a course of North 73° 40’22” East a distance of 1,819.92 feet to a point on the West line of said First Energy right-of-way; thence along the West line of said First Energy right-of-way on a course of South 02° 23 ’31 ” East a distance of 1,131.44 feet to a point, the place of beginning.

After the completion of the survey, defendants began preparations to harvest trees from their property. In July 2004, defendants contracted with Jeff Bloise Logging to harvest timber from defendants’ property as defined by the professional survey.

According to the complaint, plaintiffs sent a letter dated July 22, 2004, to defendants and the logging company notifying them that plaintiffs owned 40 acres of property claimed by the defendant and advised defendants to refrain from harvesting trees from the disputed area until the true boundary line could be determined. On July 29, 2005 upon direction by defendants the loggers began harvesting trees from the portion of the property in dispute. On August 9,2005 the plaintiffs hired Ross Taylor of Taylor Engineering to complete a property survey of [101]*101the plaintiffs’ land to determine if the land the defendants’ harvested trees from belonged to plaintiffs. Ross Taylor’s survey opined that plaintiffs owned the 40 acres of land from which the defendants harvested timber; therefore, the plaintiffs filed a civil complaint against defendants David and Bette Capots alleging causes of action for trespass, conversion, ejectment and permanent injunction.

Subsequent to the filing of the complaint, the original plaintiff Ethel Kline died. On July 8,2008, plaintiff Harold Kline irrevocably transferred the real property known as permanent parcel ID #33-071100 by deed to additional plaintiff Sandra Johnston. Sandra Johnston is the daughter of the original plaintiffs. The conveyance to Sandra Johnston did not contain a metes and bounds description of the parcel of land nor did the conveyance contain any reference to any inchoate right, interest or title by way of adverse possession to the parcel. The plaintiffs Harold and Ethel Kline are now both deceased1. The original defendants, David and Bette Capots, sold their property, which includes a description of the disputed 40 acre parcel of land, to Urie Byler by article of agreement. The court granted the parties motion to add Urie Byler as an additional defendant and Sandra Johnston as an additional plaintiff.

The parties participated in discovery and each party requested that the opposing party’s expert witness answer interrogatories and produce the documents relied upon in the survey. On May 19, 2006, Ross Taylor, the plaintiff’s [102]*102expert, responded to defendant’s interrogatories. Thereafter, on August 28, 2006, defendants’ expert witness, David LaPearle, responded to plaintiffs’ interrogatories and request for documents. In February 2010 plaintiffs’ former counsel demanded depositions of the experts. Depositions of the two experts were scheduled and re-scheduled several times. On September 26, 2012 a deposition of defendants’ expert was conducted. The deposition of plaintiff’s expert was to be scheduled for a future date. On February 11, 2013 the plaintiffs’ expert arrived for his deposition but refused to have any testimony taken under oath and refused to testify as to any information contained in his survey of the property.

On April 11, 2013, the additional plaintiff filed an amended complaint alleging an additional alternative cause of action in adverse possession. Defendants filed preliminary objections to the amended complaint and the additional plaintiff responded by filing a second amended complaint on June 13, 2013. The defendants filed preliminary objections to the second amended complaint arguing lack of standing to make a claim for adverse possession and the legal insufficiency of the amended complaint citing a failure to allege sufficient facts to establish a cause of action in adverse possession.

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Bluebook (online)
47 Pa. D. & C.5th 97, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kline-v-capots-pactcompllawren-2015.